Monday, June 28, 2010

The big day for the new iPhone had finally arrived. I had two choices. Feign sick and call my boss from the line outside of the Apple store hoping the media would not pick me out on camera, or call it a national holiday and take the day off.

The news media was there, good thing it was a national holiday.

And it was a bit like Christmas, who else in their right minds rolls out of bed at 2 am?

When we arrived at o'dark hundred, I mean 4 am, the line was already wrapping around the building. We were probably 150th in line, but who can count that high that early in the morning. Apparently lots of people were celebrating a national holiday.

And the apple did glow in the early-morning air.

People or statues were dancing in the streets in anticipation of the release.

The camera and I had gone off for a little stroll and when we came back, people were wrapping themselves around the next corner. This was about 5:30 am.

At about 6 am, the Apple people strolled through the crowd passing out free donuts. Millions of donuts. And these weren't your itsy bitsy bites either, they were full fledged. Juice, coffee and water accompanied the donuts.

The Red Bull wagon showed up, but for whatever the reason, the mall management didn't want them there. Baldy (my new affectionate name for him), strolled up to their car and told them to take a hike.

When I kidded him about it, he said he hated being the bad guy. Yeppers, he even told me I couldn't sit in the street.

At about 11 am, we sighted the Apple as we inched our way around the corner.

Eight hours in, News 8 showed up. Mic boy actually had the nerve to say he was a Droid owner. Those were the first and only boos heard from the crowd all day.

I really went up to keep Karen company, but I have a confession, I got caught-up in the excitement of waiting and joking and laughing and 9.5 hours later, I walked out of the store with the new iPhone.

It was a very long wait, but to Apple's credit, they did an awesome job. Bottles of water were readily available. The store clerks were amazing. We were tired and getting rummy as I'm sure they were, but as a customer, we never knew it.